Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Nelson Mandela, South African Integral Visionary, systematic
thinker, dialoguer, bridger, and innovator, is gone but his legacy will remain forever. Legacy
is about life and living. It is about learning from the past, living in the
present, and building for the future.

First of all, I would like to
say the following as attention gathering. Where do you think it is best to
plant a young tree: a clearing in an old-growth forest or an open field?
Ecologists tell us that a young tree grows better when it is planted in an area
with older trees. The reason, it seems, is that the roots of the young tree are
able to follow the pathways created by former trees and implant themselves more
deeply. Over time, the roots of many trees may actually graft themselves to one
another, creating an intricate, interdependent foundation hidden under the
ground. In this way, stronger trees share resources with weaker ones so that
the whole forest becomes healthier. That is legacy: an interconnection across
time, with a need for those who have come before us and a responsibility to
those who come after us.

Legacy is fundamental to what
it is to be human. The idea of legacy may remind us of death, but it is not
about death. Being reminded of death is actually a good thing, because death
informs life. It gives you a perspective on what is important. But legacy is
really about life and living. It helps us decide the kind of life we want to
live and the kind of world we want to live in. Thus, I am writing this paper to
reflect the time when Nelson Mandela was living among South African.

Chief among African leaders, Nelson Mandela, was one of few
statesmen to have achieved almost universal respect around the world and across
the political spectrum. His role in fighting apartheid, his imprisonment on
Robben Island - where he came to symbolize the struggle of oppressed people
around the world - and his ability to steer South Africa through the crisis of
its rebirth earned him the international reputation of benevolent negotiator
and quintessential peacemaker. Despite
imprisonment in Robben Island for 27 years, Mandela never lost faith in winning
freedom for the South African people. Mandela was one of the few leaders
capable of inspiring confidence both inside and outside South Africa. In 1993,
he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, which he shared with former South African
president FW de Klerk. While Nelson Mandela’s legacy can be remembered in
different ways around the World, I strongly think that most people will
remember him as a visionary, mediator, systematic thinker, dialoguer, Bridger, and
innovator.

Nelson Mandela was a
visionary. Mandela captured and held the vision of the entire apartheid
conflict, with all of its divisions and consequences, that it should be
abolished and every man and women, black and white of South Africa, must be
free and equal in the eyes of the Nation. It was this integral vision that propelled
him to do what he had to do, and it was this integral vision that sustained him
through the darkest days in prison. He committed himself to holding all sides
of the conflict - in all their complexity - in his mind, which led him to liberate South Africa from a system of violent prejudice,
and then helped unite white and black, oppressor and oppressed, in a way that
had never been done before.

Nelson Mandela had
always lived by his values. Mandela believed deeply in democracy, equality
and human rights. He had always repressed his own desires and sacrificed his
own needs for the greater good of the people. This was a responsibility that came
with his leadership and he not only felt it, but lived by it. He was a man of
great integrity who has always lived according to his principles, and even if
it meant making a personal sacrifice, he would not compromise on them. He
believed very strongly in the notion of fairness. Mandela embodies the
universal values of honesty, integrity, fair play and truth, not just in word,
but more importantly in deed.

Nelson Mandela was a
mediator leader. Mandela learned to face the facts of South Africa conflict,
understood them and helped the combatants resolve their differences. He became a
mediator type of leader, who transformed conflict in South Africa into
opportunities. Unlike the demagogue leader who leads through fear, threats, and
intimidation or the manager leader who defines purpose in terms of the
self-interest of his/her own group, Mandela was mediator leader who saw and acted
for the good of all people of South Africa.

Nelson Mandela had
strong emotional intelligence. Mandela had strong emotional intelligence that
helped him handle difficult people and turned complex situations into
situations with paths of open communication, which helped him to avoid
vulnerability and difficult situations. Related to his emotional intelligence,
I can describe him as he had all the qualities elements of emotional intelligence such as self-awareness,
self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social awareness. In his leadership,
Mandela had mastered the two competences of emotional intelligence:
personal and social. In his personal competence, he was self-aware and understood
his emotions as well as strengths and weaknesses. His self-aware was not only
realizing how he felt but why and how it affected other people, which involved
controlling emotions, adapting behavior to adverse situations, being truthful,
and striving to improve.

Nelson Mandela was a historical man. Mandela was thinking in terms of not days and weeks but
decades. He knew history was on his side, that the result was inevitable; it
was just a question of how soon and how it would be achieved. His plan was that
things will be better in the long run. Mandela’s calculus was always, what is
the end that he seeks, and what is the most practical way to get there? He regarded his role in prison not just the
leader of the African National Congress (ANC), but as a promoter of unity, an honest
broker, a peacemaker and he was reluctant to take a side in this dispute even
if it was the side of his organization.

Nelson Mandela was
systematic thinker. Mandela thought in terms of systems. In his systematic
thinking, he considered every element of a conflict in terms of its relationship
to other elements. He had ability to assemble a puzzle by seeing how the pieces
of conflict relate. He did not say that one piece was more important than any
other. He wanted to show the young black
consciousness men that the struggle was indivisible and that they all had the
same enemy. The good that came of his regarded
his role as the leader of ANC was that Mandela on his own launched negotiations
with the apartheid government. This was anathema to the ANC. After decades of
saying prisoners cannot negotiate and after advocating an armed struggle that
would bring the government to its knees, he decided that the time was right to
begin to talk to his oppressors. For Mandela, refusing to negotiate was about
tactics, a systematic thinking, not principles. He turned to negotiation
after identified all the pieces of the puzzle of the conflict and how they fit
together for better outcome. His unwavering principle - the overthrow of
apartheid and the achievement of one man, one vote - was immutable, but almost
anything that helped him get to that goal he regarded as a systematic thinking.

Nelson Mandela was an
empathetic leader. Mandela was not a bubble-gum
leader, chew it now and throw it away.When he
announced his willing to negotiate with the government in 1985, there were many
among his supporters who thought he had lost it. However, Mandela launched a
campaign to persuade the ANC that his was the correct course. He went to each
of his supporters in prison and explained what he was doing. Slowly and deliberately,
he brought them along. He took his support base along with him. When the
time came for the negotiations with the government that he had helped give
birth to, he allowed others to take the lead while he
was just present among the people. His presence, this means when his whole self
- mental, emotional, and spiritual - got to be present and available in the
conflict situation, everyone see that will change the behavior. When he was
interacting with people, he was in the moment. In the presence of ordinary
folk, he seldom postures or plays a role and appears happy to simply focus on
taking in their expressions, feelings and responses.

Nelson Mandela was dialoguer. In 1994, when Mandela was running for the presidency, he
knew that peace among white and black South African was not yet strongly built.
Hence, he launched a dialogue as part of his presidential campaigning. It was
not round table dialogue, but peace-building symbols. The language,
humor and symbols he had always used have the power to move people to follow
him in achieving the vision he painted so eloquently.
He especially encouraged dialogue because it was an inquiry-based,
trust-building way of communicating that maximized the human capacity to bridge
and to innovate.

Nelson Mandela was smiler. When he was on a platform, he would always do the toyi-toyi,
the township war dance of black South
Africans. Toyi-toyi symbolizes a fine example of South Africa’s rare spirit in
the face of impossible conditions and abject poverty. From protests to
celebrations, the chants capture the emotions of joy, pain, encouragement,
heartbreak and solace. But more important was Mandela’s
dazzling, beatific, all-inclusive smile. For white South Africans, the smile
symbolized Mandela’s lack of bitterness and suggested that he was sympathetic
to them. To black voters, it said, I am the happy warrior, and we will triumph.
The ubiquitous ANC election poster was simply his smiling face. The smile was
the message.

Nelson Mandela was Bridger. Mandela as the president of South Africa,
he has always followed the principles he first saw demonstrated by the regent
at the Great Palace. He has always endeavored to listen to what each and every
person in a discussion had to say before venturing his own opinion. Oftentimes,
his own opinion was simply representing a consensus of what he heard in the
discussion. He always remembered the regent’s axiom: a leader, he said, is like
a shepherd. Hence, Mandela able to bridge the most part of divisions and
developed trust among different race in South Africa. Eventually,
in his bridging strategies, words were not enough. He induced people to
actually change of their behavior toward each other or their way of dealing
with the conflict. He asked both side to build an invisible bridge spanning the
chasm between them - a bridge made up of trust, respect, empathy,
understanding, courage, that last forever.

Nelson Mandela was an innovator. Mandela had great ability of innovation. During his term
as South Africa president, with people finally open to each other’s minds and
hearts and core concerns, he successfully introduced, solicited, and encouraged
the development of new options for moving
through conflicts so that the peace stays among South African forever. He
redesigned the government system and changed the rules that stand for all
people of South Africa.

In conclusion, Nelson Mandela was a visionary,mediator, systematic thinker,empathetic, dialoguer,
Bridger, innovator and a great leader, but
most of all he is a human being. A man who overcame great personal suffering,
and yet emerged with his vision for the future still intact and his
determination to forgive the past and build a future with all the people in South
Africa so compelling, that he swept the nation along with him in his quest. Hence, he is gone but his deeds remain not only with South
African but also with people around the world. Actually, this is Nelson
Mandela’s legacy, but how will you be remembered? It is you to shape your own deeds
so that, if the world or your country won’t remember you, your community may do
so.

This paper is written by Gugo Obang, residing in the United
States and can be reached at kwotg@hotmail.com